Pat
Curran will finally get his shot at Eddie
Alvarez and the Bellator lightweight title, as the promotion
Wednesday announced that the pair will square off in the main event
of
Bellator 39.

The event goes down April 2 from the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn., and will also feature a 170-pound contest
pitting debuting UFC vet Ben
Saunders against former Strikeforce competitor Matt Lee, as
well as the welterweight tournament semifinals.

The show will begin at 8 p.m. ET, and the main card, which will be
broadcast live on MTV2, will kick off at 9 p.m. ET. Bellator 39
marks the fourth time the promotion has visited the Mohegan
Sun.

A winner in 11 of his last 12 bouts, Alvarez has not lost since he
was caught in a Shinya Aoki
heel hook in December 2008. After losing to Aoki, the Philadelphia
Fight Factory standout made his Bellator debut at the promotion's
inaugural event in 2009, topping Toby Imada in
the championship round. Alvarez earned each of his tournament wins
by submission and followed his championship run with wins over
Katsunori
Kikuno, Josh Neer and
Roger
Huerta.

Curran rides a four-fight winning streak heading into his title
shot against Alvarez. The 23-year-old debuted for Bellator in April
of 2010 as part of the promotion's second-season lightweight
tournament. After knocking out Mike Ricci in
the opening round, Curran faced the aforementioned Huerta in the
semis, outpointing “El Matador” en route to a berth in the
tournament final against Toby Imada in
June.

After three hard-fought rounds, Curran was declared the victor by
split decision and was awarded the tournament crown and a
guaranteed shot at Alvarez's title. The Crystal Lake, Ill. native
was scheduled to take on Alvarez in season three, but a shoulder
injury prevented Curran from competing. Instead, Alvarez took on
Huerta in a non-title affair, dismantling the 27-year-old in a
one-sided TKO victory that was stopped on the ringside doctor’s
advice after the second round.

Related News

It wasn’t Douglas Lima’s fault that Ben Askren relinquished his Bellator welterweight belt in search of greener pastures. But ever since he seized the title, he told MMAjunkie, some fans seem to enjoread news >>

Former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko started a flashmob in his support, which reached the local government in the Omsk region of Russia. Having been suspended for three years aloread news >>

The best featherweight outside the UFC is confident in beating the world's top fighters of his weight class. Conor McGregor is obviously not the only top-featherweight that is firing shots in the dirread news >>

Just like Conor McGregor, though, he won't be getting that chance any time soon ... albeit for different reasons. Jose Aldo has no shortage of people who want to beat him up. It's hardly surprising gread news >>

Jessica Aguilar finally has the chance to prove what she’s long said: She’s the top 115-pound female fighter in the world. To do it, though, she needed to leave her former home.Filed under: News, UFCread news >>

Patricio Freire successfully defended his Bellator featherweight title with a second-round finish over Daniel Weichel last Friday at Bellator 138, and being able to coming back from a tough first rouread news >>

Bellator MMA featherweight champion Patricio Freire talks about his thrilling win over Daniel Weichel, and how he'd match up against UFC fighters. There is a Brazilian MMA featherweight champion who read news >>